How to Optimise Blog Posts to Gain Featured Snippets
Let’s be clear, you can’t just create featured snippets. It’s all down to Google’s algorithm and, as a result, there’s no way to force the situation.
However, you can put the cogs in place so that your piece of content has a better chance at gaining a featured snippet.
The best place to begin is by analysing your webpage rankings in Google. You should target keywords that you’re already ranking on page one for. That’s because it’s only worth aiming for search results that trigger a featured snippet.
1. Complete research on target keywords
Using SEO Tools
The main kind of search query that triggers featured snippets are questions.
If you have access to an SEO tool such as MOZ, SEMRush or similar, you can quickly spot if there are any snippet opportunities available for the keywords that you’re tracking.
The image below was taken from MOZ, showcasing there are featured snippet opportunities indicated by the grey bar above the scissors icon.
The blue bar highlights the snippets you’re already showing for. The other icons represent other SERP features that are different from featured snippets.
MOZ shows you if a keyword you’re tracking has won a snippet position. In the example below, the circular scissors icon is grey because the opportunity is yet to be won.
If you’ve already won the featured snippet, the icon would be highlighted blue.
If you do not have access to an SEO tool that provides this information for you, then you will need to use the good old manual process.
NOT Using SEO Tools
Simply enter your search term, preferably a long-tail question and a featured snippet result along with a ‘People also ask’ question box, should appear. This can be seen in the image below.
Then you can make a note of the keywords that have featured snippet opportunities and those that don’t.
Using Answer The Public
Another useful tool you can use is answerthepublic.com. On this tool, you enter your search query and you’re presented with a wheel of questions as shown in the image below.
By clicking on each question on the wheel you can see the search results in Google.
Then, back on the Answer The Public results page, there is also a ‘Related’ wheel. It allows you to see other questions that are related to your search term or keywords which is great for obtaining future content ideas.
Finally, if you’re not having any luck with your current set of target keywords, you may need to complete further keyword research. You can do this by using tools like Google Ads’ Keyword Planner.
Using this tool, you can get a great idea of the search volumes each search term has, helping you to decide whether it’s useful to try and target these terms, or not.
2. Content Creation for Featured Snippets
Once you’ve done your research, whether it’s using SEO tools, using the manual processes or our other suggested ways, the next step is to create your content and tailor it to the type of featured snippet you’re aiming for.
Below are some tips that we’ve picked up when researching paragraph featured snippets and list featured snippets:
Paragraph
Firstly, start your piece of content by clearly answering your targeted question. The highest number of characters we’ve seen for a paragraph featured snippet is 324 characters. That’s about 4 lines of text so try to answer the question in a short, simple block of text.
Lists
From research, bulleted lists and numbered list featured snippets display 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 listed items before a “more items” link is displayed. Hence, we recommend keeping your bullets straight-forward and to-the-point.
After you answer the initial question at the beginning of the article, you can then expand on the answer in the paragraphs that follow.
Make sure that your optimised content is accompanied by a relevant image, ensuring you include your targeted keyword/ question in the image alt tag.
Google’s definition of an “image alt tag” is as follows: ‘An alt tag, also known as “alt attribute” and “alt description,” is an HTML attribute applied to image tags to provide a text alternative for search engines.’
3. Format your content
Formatting your content in a way that Google can understand will help you gain that featured snippet. Using basic HTML tags will increase your chances including the following:
Header Tags
Make sure to correctly structure your headings using the appropriate header tags format (<h2>, <h3>, <h4> etc).
Header tags categorise text headings on a web page. They are the titles and subcategories of a web page and help indicate to readers and search engines what the page is about.
They use a cascading format where a page should have only one H1 (main title) but beneath can be multiple H2s (subtitles) and every H2 can have H3s beneath (sub-subtitles).
Paragraph Tags
Most content management systems by default will add the paragraph tag to your copy. It is worth checking in the HTML view if this is the case. If it doesn’t then you will need to add the <p> tags yourself.
List Items
In the same way as paragraph tags, most content management systems will automatically add the <ol> (ordered list), <ul> and <li> (unordered list) tags for you at the touch of a button. If not, you’ll need to manually add them in HTML view.
HTML Code Example:
How your lists will look in a live article:
Tabled Items
If you are targeting a featured snippet that contains a table, it is best to make sure the data that you are answering the question with is within <table> tags.
HTML Code Example:
How your table will look in a live article:
As a general rule, you must ensure your article title and following content is grammatically correct and without spelling mistakes. Like most of us, Google also likes accurate, well-written copy.
It’s clear that there’s a lot of information to take in, so take your time. Any questions, ask the Kanuka team. Drop us a line on 01785 279985 Send us an email hello@kanukadigital.comGet in touch